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Game analysis: Oct 29 @ Washington

Great game by the Wings tonight. Very few mistakes. Let’s take a look.

A big reason the Wings only had 3 shots in the first period was their breakout. Two forwards standing still on the blue line while F3 makes the pass. By the time the puck gets to F2, there’s already 3 Capitals defending against him, and he has no momentum, nor does F1.

As mentioned before, I’m a big fan of this touch pass that the Wings have been using to get out of their zone. It causes the defender to (possibly) step up on Abdelkader, only to have Nyquist fly out with the puck at 90% speed.

Look at ALL THIS SPACE that Nyquist has. Wings got lucky that Johanssen turned the puck over in his own zone, and that the Capitals defencemen panicked a bit, leaving Goose all alone.

Notice that Ericsson has lost the last man back, causing Miller to cover for him. Miller can’t contain Brouwer so the pass gets through. Thankfully Howard was on his game tonight, and stopped this one.

Great pass by Holtby, up to Ward who finds Kuznetsov streaking in behind Dekeyser. Tough break on the penalty kill for the Wings.

Great passing here by the Caps, but the Wings are stacking one side of the ice on the rush. I would have been surprised if the Capitals didn’t score on this chance.

Abdelkader going all out to get this goal. Doing all that he can to strip the defender of the puck, get position and shoot this one blocker side.

And this is why I love the Red Wings. 2-2 game, and they bring all 5 guys back to defend 2 Capitals players. This team takes care of it’s own.

A great 2 part goal here, and it shows why Abby has two goals. This goal comes from Zetterberg batting the puck out of mid air at centre ice, passing the puck to Datsyuk, Datsyuk makes a few moves, goes wide and drops the puck to Abdelkader. Beautiful execution by the Wings.

All that room Tatar…

1 second left on the power play! We’ll take it! Seems as though Holtby sees all of this puck, but Datsyuk still sneaks it by!

Notes:

Almost all of Washington’s power play chances came from the outside, which means the Wings are taking away the middle more often than not.

You can tell that the Wings trust Howard as they’re giving him every chance to see the puck.

I feel bad for Chimera who got decked by both Smith and Kronwall throughout this game.

Late in the third, Nyquist was playing with Glendening and Tatar; not sure what to make of that.